About the Ribbon

The Ribbon displays across the top of the main window, providing access to a variety of tools and commands.

Ribbon elements

The Ribbon is organized in tabs (1), panels (2), and commands (3).

Some panels contain a drop-down arrow, which indicates that additional commands are available.

Drop-down panel

Some commands activate context-sensitive panels associated with the current task.

Contextual panel

Ribbon References

The help topics contain several references to commands from the ribbon. These references consist of the tab name, followed by the panel name, followed by the command name.

For example, here is a reference to the Beam command which is located in the Structural Elements panel of the Model tab:

Model Structural Elements Beam.

Tooltips

Tooltips display when you hover over a command in the ribbon. They display the name of the command as well as a short description. If you continue to pause over a command, the tooltip expands to reveal additional information.